Retro Game Challenge is a love letter to the olden days of gaming, back when used games required a sharp blow along the cartridge before being slotted into the sharply angled consoles of old. A time where print magazines were the only source for game dirt and back when the games themselves would kick your ass with uncompromising difficulty and a keen lack of tutorials. Essentially what RGC does is parody the trends of gaming from the early to the late 80 are you will find versions of Mario, Zelda, Xpand Rally and Galga to name a few. Every new evolution of these games brings with them more features and better graphics mirroring the real life counterparts.

Each new game brings with it four challenges you must complete in order to advance to the next game. These challenges are introduced to you by the Games Master Ashino, except not the young Ashino who sits with you as you play the games but a future older Ashino, represented as a floating head made up of crude polygons, an eccentric flamboyance coupled with a sinister grin and a fondness of shouting makes you wonder what happened to young Ashino to turn him into this.

The dialogue between yourself and Ashino both young and old is full of wit and reference, it all adds to the humble presentation which successfully makes you feel nostalgic and childlike by constantly reminding you of the little details of 80’s era gaming. Much of the success of RGC is its understanding of its target audience, the game assumes that you already know the basics of how to play the archetypes of games which it presents to you. So there already exists a familiarity between yourself and the games and the game plays on this by asking you to complete a series of challenges not necessarily related to the natural progression of the game. ‘Jump on two enemies heads in a row.’ Is the first challenge you are given for Haggle Man 1, the Mario parody. With this challenge, you (as a gamer) already know what you have to do. Along with the graphics, controls and sound it feels like you have played the games before. 

The challenges do get harder as you progress, a sum of them may ask seemingly impossible tasks of you which require you to read up on the game to learn of any tips or cheats to help you. With every challenge you are given a new edition of Game Fan magazine which is a spoof magazine featuring reviews, previews, hints, cheats, guides and even fake reader letters. Each magazine is about 6 pages long and they are all a joy to read, full of funny moments like the constant build up and delay of Guadia Quest which is the RPG, yes RGC even includes and RPG! Enough abbreviations, Retro Game Challenge is a fantastic game which any DS owner with a history of 80’s videogames should defiantly pick up. It’s a shame that there is a sequel already released in Japan but so far any word on a localisation for western audiences seems unlikely due to the poor initial sales of the original. So do me a favour and buy this game so that I may one day play the sequel. My DS game of 2009, for sure.

4/5 - Great